Looking for the best tent campgrounds near Broken Bow? The Dyrt helps you find campsites with tent camping near Broken Bow. Whether you're looking for a quiet, dispersed site or an established camgpround with amenities, The Dyrt makes it easy to find the perfect place to pitch your tent.
Middle Loup River access and 20-acre lake. Excellent location for fishing, camping, picnicking and swimming. Tent camping only.
Located in the southeastern corner of the Bessey Ranger District on the Dismal River, this 10-site campground has potable water, nine horse corrals, picnic tables, fire rings, and modern vault toilets. It is situated on the OHV trail system. No electricity is available.
Guide
Quaint little city park with RV and tent camping. To occupy a tent site you MUST pitch a tent ( so no Van camping at those). Place is quiet and clean and nice peeps
Legend
I grew up in the towns next to the Davis Creek Dam which is managed by the NRD. This is a great , once upon a time small campground right on Davis Creek Dam. You’ll enjoy this campground that is far away from road noise. Supplies can be purchased in North Loup, Scotia or Ord Nebraska, roughly 6 and 16 miles way respectively. This campground gets busy over summer holidays but other than that I’ve found that you can reserve same day spots without worry, especially if you are tent camping.
Guide
Spent a night here by the water and experienced a beautiful sunset. Its a perfect place to camp for a night or kayak for an afternoon. Got lucky enough to have the entire place to myself. Really relaxed place. Perfect for tent camping and a water view.
Traveler
We really enjoyed this campground but the RV sites are definitely popular on the weekends. We arrived at about 4 on a Saturday in June. All of the sites were first-come-first-served and the only thing available were the tent sites with no hook ups. We stayed by the kayak put-in and it was lovely—green, shaded and peaceful, near the water spigot, clean bathrooms and pay showers. There’s a decent amount of space between each site, though no bushes or anything to create privacy. There were also some tent sites available right near the water that we didn’t realize were open until we had already settled in. The lake is lovely and there are huge trees all over. There’s only one RV dump site which made for a huge line in the morning.
Guide
Very nice little campground. Well manicured. Nice tent camping pads. Spots are well shaded. Has modern bathroom with FREE showers. Has primitive toilets scattered everywhere. Have walking, Jeep, ATV trails all over. Nice little pond to catch a few fish. Overall a very nice spot. A little noisy during the day with all the ATV traffic, but nice and quiet at night!
TravelerNice quiet campground! We tent camped, it was a nice grassy spot! Our camp site had a picnic table and a fire ring! We chose one on the end with trees on one side so more privacy! There were very few other campers around! Kayak access down the road from our spot! Bathrooms were nice! You have to pay for showers! They had some free firewood available which was really nice to help our fire last longer!
LegendHalsey National Forests campground is called Bessey Recreation Campground and has cabins, Rv sites, tent sites, as well as group and family sites. The Rv sites are Electric and gravel and are fairly level. They have picnic tables and fire rings and are spacious. And of course plenty of shade since you are in a forest.
There is a Nursery which grows the trees for the forest, a Look Out Tower which offers a panoramic view of the Sandhills, hunting, fishing, scenic drives, wildlife viewing, hiking and ATV trails, along with other activities.
It is a nice place to stop over and see.
Legend
Victoria Springs has 2 different areas for camping. One area is for tent camping ($15 a day) and has a small lake with paddle boats to use. The lake has an algae issue right now. This area has a picnic shelter and playground that is dated. There are 2 cute cabins available for rent which have fire rings and picnic tables. The other area is for RVs and you can have electric $20)or electric and water($30). Each site has a fire ring and picnic shelter and is on grass. There is a basketball hoop that needs help and horseshoe area which is overgrown. A little bit of upkeep and elbow grease and this would be a great getaway.
Legend
3 miles East of Loup City is Trade Winds campground. It is privately owned so you don’t need a state pass. It has 12 cabins and 20 Rv/tent sites with electricity and shared water. The sites are very close together but have shade trees. Each site is back in with picnic bench and fire rings. There is a nice marina for food,bait, supplies. And it has a grill open on weekends. There is a coin operated shower house and laundry mat area. The Marina also has kayak, boat slip, and storage for rent. Everyone there seems to be nice. They even had a huge firework display.
Guide
We had such a great stay at the Nunda Shoal Campground. It's situated directly next to the Calamus Reservoir, and there is at least one path that leads right to the sandy beach. It's technically for RVs, but we ended up staying there because the nearby tent campground was completely vacant, and we'd rather stay in a more populated area. There are several coin-operated showers that work pretty well. The camp hosts that were present when we were there were incedibly kind, and we really enjoyed chatting with them.
Guide
Broken Bow is a great town. Been through there several times. The city park is great, not much to it but it is nice and clean and convenient. For $20, would recommend. Full hook-ups.
LegendLocated in Broken Bow 2 blocks from the highway by the city park and is a small but nice RV Park. It is clean and well kept. All sites are full hook ups with a few on concrete but most on gravel. Most sites are pull thru. Not every site has a picnic bench, they are scattered around. This is a fairly new park, has 15 spaces and has no shade. Daily fee is $20.
LegendDavis creek is a 67 camp site (25 primitive/2 ADA, 42 electric/3 ADA) nestled in rolling hills of Valley county Nebraska on the Davis Creek reservoir. Camping is permitted year round although water is only available April 1 to November 30th. There is also a camp host in the RV section from April-Nov. There are no established trails for hiking but the gravel roads throughout the camp are used for walking and bike riding.
This is a lake and campground that went from very primitive just over 20 years ago to a top notch natural resource district campground and recreation area. The NRD is investing heavily in this campground with large shelters, shower house (bring quarters), 2 boat ramp areas, large fish cleaning station, ADA ramps, fishing docks, and a small swimming beach. The rumor from the locals is that the entire campground will be electric in the near future. I was really impressed to find free WiFi added in 2019! The WiFi was strong and reliable everywhere in the campground.
I camped on site 72 which is an electrical site capable of facilitating smaller RV’s, campers or tents. Site 72 was near water, a brick restroom building and the shower building. You’ll be hard pressed to find any adequate shade at any of the sites here although the row of 60’s will offer some late day/evening shade. All of the sites have very nice concrete pads with large fire rings with grilling grates in addition to large concrete pads with picnic tables. There is plenty of green space at most sites and at 72 we set up horseshoe stakes and had all the room we needed.
The lake: we took our kayaks out and did some fishing on this campout. Access to the lake is easy with nice wide boat ramps at two different let in’s. This is a popular fishing and water sport lake that does allow skiing and high speed water sports. If you like to fish I recommend going to the inlet a couple of miles North of the campground, it seems to be the most popular spot for on water and shore-line fishing. We trolled lines behind our kayaks and caught white bass on this Memorial Day weekend in 2019.
ADA site: There was a really nicely designed ADA site next to site 72 that I think is worth mentioning here. The site was flat with a concrete path that connected the site to the walking path to the restrooms. The fire ring and picnic table were also designed for those wheelchair bound. I’ve attached some pictures below. If you have disabilities you’ll have access to everything you need at this campground.
ScoutHad a great experience tenting here. Bathrooms were very clean and overall had an amazing experience. I would recommend this spot to anyone especially for tenting.
TravelerLove Victoria Springs! It is a hidden gem in the Nebraska Sandhills. It fills up on the weekends but during the week you can have the entire campground to yourself. Beautiful trees, nice shade, and electrical hook-ups.
LegendWe wanted to camp Nebraska's national forest for some time and we were not disappointed. The camp was full to the brim. all sites with hookups were taken, but the overflow is an abandoned, overgrown baseball field. It was great, spacious, close to the showers and flush toilets, and only $8 a night!
I think hookups were only $16, so this is a great deal no matter how you slice it.
Neighboring Thedford has Kayaks and Tanks you can rent. Tanking has become a Nebraska Thing. fitting a group of folks and possibly a keg in a horse tank and floating down river! We hiked to the ranger tower and it was a great hike with a spring fed trough half way up. Much to see in the surrounding area including art galleries, quilt shops, and more. Nice camping supply store right in Halsey.
Scout
I just happened upon this park as I was really tired and needed a place to stop and it's just beautiful. It's a donation Park like many in Nebraska. Almost every little small town seems to have one.This park has lots of nice Shady trees and water and a bathhouse no showers.
RangerConvenient stopover driving through Nebraska. It's on the other side of town in a Park, away from the interstate. Traveling with a Labrador Retriever, the huge park was wonderful. Electric, water and a dump station met all my needs. Bathhouse needs some TLC, and was not clean. WiFi worked well! Cute little town with fastfood or other options to eat.
Guide
Lots of work and upgrades in progress to facilities like bath house and hook ups etc. Porta-Potties available and free remnant firewood boxes for fire rings. Picnic tables metal wire on cement slabs. RV pull thru on gravel. Easy to call for details and upgrade status; nice staff. Peaceful Camping. Spent two nights for Nebraska Junk Jaunt.
TravelerThe sites are mostly level and well groomed grass with 2 new concrete handicap spots. The 30 amp and 50 amp power was proper voltage and dependable. Access to clear line of site to south for Dish or Directv is difficult due to heavy tree population. Non-Nebraska resident requires $14 pass in addition to the $30 fee with electric. Potable water is available and dump station is easily accessible with a rinse water source. Ingress and egress is good with gravel road surfaces in park. The restrooms and showers are very clean and accessible.
ScoutFCFS, no reservations needed. About 10 electric sites, plenty of tent and/or primitive sites. Boat dock, shower house, clean restrooms. Usually pretty peaceful. Quite a bit of shade also. Fire rings at each spot. We have a 38’ 5th wheel and have no problem parking that and a boat and tow vehicle in our area.
Traveler
Very small campground inside the Burwell city park. Four electrical hookups, two back in & two pull-through. Very old wooden pit toilets, may have showers up at the pool & had one flush toilet restroom on the outside wall of the pool house that had a door (unlocked at all times we were there.) We stayed in one of the back-in sites that was right on the Loup River. Very quiet with no hi-way noise. We were there two nights and a Burwell sheriff drove through one night, and a Nebraska state patrol cruiser drove through the other night we were there. We had a very nice quiet stay there.
Legend
Broke down outside and Cozad and didn’t mind staying here. This place has electric, water, and a dump station for $15 a night. INSANE! It’s in a clean/well kept area. It seems like many people use the area just for the dump station as there is no posted charges. What kept me from giving this place 5 stars was the trains nearby. However, I used to live my tracks so it doesn’t really bother me.
Cons: Bathrooms on site are dimly lit and they are kinda creepy. No fire pits or picnic tables at sites. Only 5 sites available but it looks like they are building more.
Overall, it’s the perfect place to break down in Nebraska and I really appreciate how affordable it is.
ScoutThis is a nice little campground in the Sandhills of Nebraska. Campsites are spaced apart nicely over three loops and many of the sites offer electric hookups. There are numerous water spigots around the campground and there’s also a dump station. The campground has hot showers, a basketball court and horseshoe pits available. A vending machine is located by the registration kiosks. Make sure to bring whatever you need with you because there isn’t much in Thedford or Halsey.
There are lots of OHV trails in the area or there’s also a 2.5 mile hiking trail that leads to a fire lookout tower that’s open to public access.
Be aware that there is a railway crossing at the turnoff from Route 2 so you will hear trains and train horns.
Legend
Off of I-80 at Exit 211 is Blue Heron Campground. The new owners took possession in 2021 and it is no longer a KOA. There are 40 RV/Trailer sites that vary from pull thru to back in. Of those sites 17 are Full Hookups and the rest are water/electric. Full runs &45/ night, W/E run $39-42. The campground has laundry, playground,restrooms(which are very clean) and there’s cute lamps scattered throughout. The areas are nice and kept up. There are also 3 cabins with swings, air, benches and fire pit which run $55 a night. This is a good place to stop and can hardly hear the interstate traffic. There are also really nice areas for tents that have picnic tables and fire pits with benches and there are water spigots scattered
LegendCampsite Review
I was looking for a place to stay close to I-80 as I made a drive from Chicago back home to Boulder. This place seemed close enough to the highway to give a look, and I was not disappointed. I rolled in to the campgrounds around sunset and saw some people using the nearby lake to do some fishing.
I woke up, and there was a horse grazing across the road, and I discovered this really large, open space park next to the grounds also had a disc golf course. My campsite had a fire pit and a picnic table, there were others with electrical hookups, and sites that could easily accommodate RVs. There was a dump station and dumpsters for waste.
There were some playground areas, a place for firewood purchase, and a horse shoe play area adjacent to a rec building.
Product Review (update)
A few weeks ago I was awarded the Saris Freedom Superclamp 2-Bike bike rack from a contest run through TheDyrt's Facebook page. I have been able to use the bike rack for about 2 months, and taken it through a lot of different road conditions. You can read about the initial review here.
My overall impressions now that I've had the rack for a while longer is that it's a winner. You can watch a video of my overall impressions. While I still wish the rack offered some kind of way to get into my trunk without having to take the bike(s) off, it's just hard to argue it's a nuisance since it doesn't take that long to take the bike(s) on and off the rack. I've also changed my mind about the built-in bike locks. While I initially thought longer bike cable locks could be useful to lock up your bikes frame and front wheel (since most bikes have a front wheel quick-release option), I realized I had my own bike lock for my bike already that I just used, and I imagine most - if not all - people who will buy a bike rack for their bikes have locks for them too. A longer cable lock would require a larger place for it to be stored when not in use, which adds to the weight of the rack, which in the end isn't necessary.
In the city of Chicago, when I took the bike off during city commuting, I noticed it would have been nice to have the ability to fold the rack up closer to the end of my car, since there's so much city parking that's parallel parking, and the space added to the end of the car no longer made me a candidate for some spots.
Overall, this Saris bike rack is so easy to use, is super secure for my bikes, and was very durable - holding up to all kinds of 4WD-only roads. Definitely recommend.
The Sun Sets on Another Road Trip
Well, this 2,900 mile round trip Colorado-Toronto road trip has finally come to a close, and it's been a lot of fun. It certainly couldn't compete with my Rocky Mountain trip in late June up to Jasper National Park in Alberta on a scenery scale, but it had it's moments of solitude and a lot more lake time. To have been able to use TheDyrt to help plan out a few days on the road like my time in Land Between the Lakes, using info to figure out things like which campgrounds would be good for biking and canoeing, was a real plus.
I tried to avoid the corn fields of Iowa and Nebraska both directions, and don't regret doing the eastbound portion along I-70 and through Kansas and Missouri, but it was more of the same when it came to fields and fields of crops and prairies. My bigger regret is not giving myself enough time to explore more parts of Tennesse and Kentucky like the fun city of Nashville or the distilleries. Then again, I loved every minute of my time spent in Toronto up north in cottage country with my family, and would've regretted skimming days off that experience. With only so many days off, it's pretty easy to prioritize family. It just means I'll be back to Kentucky, derby time or camping season.
Legend
Wooden Castle is right off the highway. The sites are Electric/water and are located behind the motel. The are run down RVs that look like they h just been left there and others look like they live there. To be perfectly honest it was unappealing, I saw signs from the management/owners that were inappropriate and would not stay there.
Tent camping near Broken Bow, Nebraska, offers a blend of scenic beauty and outdoor adventure, perfect for those looking to escape into nature.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular tent campsite near Broken Bow, NE?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular tent campground near Broken Bow, NE is Wooden Castle with a 1-star rating from 1 review.
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TheDyrt.com has all 6 tent camping locations near Broken Bow, NE, with real photos and reviews from campers.
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